HAIR - The Film — Page 3

Oh, I trust you, kitten...I just was wondering why I didnt remember it...maybe I didnt see the finals.

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How did "Air" fit into the movie, exactly? I guess because it was sung by a woman and because of it's position on the album, I figured it was maybe a cut song sung by Sheila and her friends before her party...

And I also was under the assumption "Frank Mills" was sung by Annie Golden, and I thought I read somewhere she said she did...but this is why the album needs to like credit actual singers.

**edit** Oh, and what's the deal with "Abie Baby" and "What a Piece of Work is Man"? Nobody ever seems to mention those two. I've really got no clue as to where or how "WAPOWIM" would be wedged into the movie, despite its order on the soundtrack.

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Updated On: 8/21/06 at 03:52 PM

doodle --- I think the only solo Annie sings on the Hair soundtrack (which was also cut from the movie) is "Air."

"Frank Mills" should have been sung by Annie's character (you're right about that), but for some reason Suzette Charles sang it on the film soundtrack. Since the song is not in the movie, I don't know if Suzette would have appeared in the film as a different character if they'd kept it or not.

But it's on the CD... sung by Suzette Charles (a few years before she was crowned Miss America! Foul! Foul!). Not Annie Golden.

Annie did perform "Frank Mills" at an actors' benefit concert though.

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Updated On: 8/21/06 at 04:32 PM

Love the film. I do miss "Frank Mills" not being in the movie.

I have talked to two other people who have seen a stage production of "Hair" and all three of us saw completely different shows. The stage show I saw was performed as a collage of songs with no plot like "Cats" One guy saw a show with Claude goes to vietnam (he saw the original tour after he got home from vietnam) I can't remember the 3rd, but it was short on plot also.

To answer the question, "how did 'Air' fit into the movie, exactly?" When the group goes out to Long Island to crash Sheila's party, they get stuck in a traffic jam on one of the bridges. The song was performed on top of the static cars. The scene was printed in one of the magazine articles on the film.

Yes, the original stage "Hair" is very short on plot. It has about 2 pages of dialogue total. (Most of that is in the "yellow shirt scene" right before "Easy To Be Hard.") It's a very different experience than the movie.

It's basically a revue with a linear arch, and what little story there is, comes at the tail end.

I was lucky enough to be in a production staged by Julie Arenal who had choreographed the original Broadway (and Off-Broadway) shows... as a teenager! It was great to learn the various visual inspirations for the songs.

"What a Piece of Work Is Man" (as someone asked earlier) was staged with our cast forming a tableau of Picasso's famous (and emotional) Guernica painting at the feet of the two singers who sang the song. During "The Flesh Failures," the ensemble put their hands over Claude's face, one by one, slowly, until he was completely obiliterated. It was taken from a Salvador Dali surrealistic painting. His identity was slowly removed during the song.

I was impressed with how much thought and inspiration had gone into it... and it was great to work on it as a performer. Very freeing.

(Yes, we did the nudity at the end of Act I, too.)

All of that said, I was very impressed with the newly imagined plot for the film. I thought it was a great adaptation of the material, even with the many liberties taken. And I'm glad they didn't just do a "revue" on film. That never would have worked or held a film audience's interest. I think this movie was a victim of bad timing. It came out at the height of the Disco Era, and people had seen so many stories about the Vietnam experience from virtually all possible angles. They were (unfortunately) "over it."

It's pretty brilliant, particularly Twyla Tharp's out-of-the-box choreography. And the cinematography. I love the way the dancers "take off like a flock of birds" during the opening Aquarius sequence and the camera follows them. It's so natural and flowing... and works beautifully.

My favorite moment is probably the Black Boys/White Boys number, where you have more Broadway and musical actors per minute than most people see in a lifetime. You've got Charlayne Woodard and Nell Carter on the "black" side. Laurie Beechman and Ellen Foley on the "white" side. And in the examination room (with painted toe nails!) you have a buck-naked Michael Jeter---looking 12 years old.

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Updated On: 8/21/06 at 07:07 PM

I saw the film for the first time last night, and really loved it. The performances were great, and Forman's style, and concept was just right. I have never seen the stage version, so I have nothing to compare it to, except the infectious energy of the OBC performances.

Could anyone go into detail about the differences, particularly in character development of Claude and Berger, and how the stage version was essentially a plotless song cycle? How did the songs fit in?

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I still adore this film and watch it often. The soundtrack is a staple on my Ipod. It was strange seeing it in 1979 in the disco era but I was entranced by the movie anyhow. And when I'm at Bethesda Fountain, I think more of Nell Carter and Twyla Tharp's dancers than the cast of "Angels in America".